Shout Out / The Battle Cats

The game's filled to the brim with these! Some things are obviously based off something, some are a tad less visible shoutouts.

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• Delinquent Cat is a blatant reference to Jotaro Kujo, even using a Stand-like attack and being able to stop time for certain types of enemies.
• Catman is obviously a shoutout to Batman.
• The Wild West-themed Cat Gunslinger evolves into Cat Eastwood upon reaching level 10.
• The evolved form of Kotatsu Cat, Sadako Cat, is a plain reference to Sadako Yamamura from the film adaptation.
• All of the evolved Nekoluga family cats' names reference a Japanese belief about Kesaran Pasaran, a spirit inhabiting a flock of weeds.
• The True Form of Dom Cat◊ prefers the Dark side of the Force. Also, evolved Princess Kaguya is called the Death Moon and is of very familiar appearance, along with Cats in a Box's True Form, Heavy Assault C.A.T.
• If the name didn't clue you in, Magica Cat's description also mentions becoming a magical girl due to a contract with an alien.
• Croco's description references "Crocodile" Dundee.
• The penguin enemy that loves kung-fu movies and is a serious kung-fu enthusiast is named Jackie Peng.
• The Teacher Bear enemy is a clear shoutout to Pedobear, both through his looks and description.
  A kindergarten teacher. He LOVES children. Not related to a certain other bear. No one knows his real name.
• J.K. Bun Bun's name is a reference to J. K. Rowling, and his description includes his books Punishment and Prejudice and Les Pénitents.
• A crowned Alien variant of Pigge is named Elizabeth the LVIth.
• The "cheesy line" in Shadow Boxer K's description is You Are Already Dead.
• An alien variation of a Bore has Spock's trademark haircut and is named Nimoy Bore. You couldn't make it any more transparent.
• The stage where you battle the Metal Cyclone is called Attack on Titanium.
• Similarly, the Zyclone's stage is named The Rolling Dead.
• Celeboodle's appearance is based off of a poodle from 101 Dalmatians.
• Rain D., a reindeer that "hates Red", is probably a reference to Rudolph. Later on, there's a Red variant of the enemy, complete with a red nose, called Blitzen.
• Director Kurosawah is known for copying the very famous movie director.
• The enemies based off of sea angels all have references to Neon Genesis Evangelion. In fact, the English name for one of them is 'Cruel Angel Clionel', a nod to the theme song of the anime.
• Among other things, you have Thor Cat, Cupid Cat, Valkyrie Cat, Bahamut Cat, Bodhisattva and Avalokitesvara Cats, Angelic Sleipnir for an enemy, and a set of cats based on Japanese mythology, various other myths, and war history.
• Apple Cat's True Form is iCat, and the cat inside who pops up when attacking is dressed like a certain software pioneer.
• Catasaurus, the True From of Jurassic Cat, rides a familiar-looking dinosaur that it met "...in a magical land of fungi". It even does the flutter kick when it attacks!
• Daboo of the Dead bears a striking resemblance to Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
• Hermit Cat from the Heavenly Tower event resembles Korin, a hermit character from Dragon Ball.
• The appearance of Kasa Jizo’s evolved form, Jizo’s Moving Castle, is based on Howl’s Moving Castle.
• There is a Cat Combo named Jibbly Studio and the cats found in the combo are The Flying Cat, Mythical Titan Cat, and Witch Cat.
• The last stage in the Walk of Fame Subchapter is called Multiversal Studios
• There is a subchapter named Mouseyland, which is a reference to Disneyland.
• D’artanyan’s name is a reference to D’artagnan. The same case also goes for D’arktanyan.
• The attack animation of Mr. Mole looks suspiciously like a Shoryuken. Also, Shoryuken translates to Rising Dragon Fist in English, while the technique used by Mr. Mole is called Rising Mole Fist, further solidifying the reference.
  • The enemy Corporal Weyland, an Alien type variant of the earlier enemy Mr. Mole, is a reference to a character from Alien.
• The doll that Puppetmaster Cat carries in his True Form looks a lot like Chucky.
• All of the Nekolugas' true forms are this:
  • Ultralan Pasalan, the True Form of Nekoluga, got tired of scaring children, so he reinvented himself as that famous masked hero.
  • Tecoluga's True Form, Lufalan Pasalan, resembles a straw-hatted pirate of some kind. But we can't really be sure.
  • Is Assassinlan Pasalan, Asiluga’s True Form, a cat? Or an extremely dramatic assassin of some kind?
  • Togeluga’s True Form, Shishilan Pasalan, is an ancient god who bridges the worlds of the living and the dead.
  • Balaluga’s True Form, Piccolan Pasalan, is said to be an unknown extraterrestrial lifeform of unimaginable power. Or is it just a really weird cat?
  • Kubiluga’s True Form, E. Kubilan Pasalan, is a mighty sumo wrestler who sharpened his skills by fighting on the streets.
  • Nobiluga's True Form, Mysticlan Pasalan, resembles the hero of Dragon Quest V.
• The face of Elder Sloth looks quite similar to the face of the River God
• All of Cat God’s poses reference a piece of art. They also have a thing in common, that being that they’re all references to Michelangelo Buonarroti’s work.
  • The normal pose of Cat God is a reference to Adam’s pose◊ in The Creation of Adam, the difference between the two being that their leg positions are different.
  • In CotC 2, he takes this pose, which is similar to the David statue.
  • Finally, in CotC 3, the pose he makes is similar to a pose found in The Last Judgement◊.
• The machine that Time Traveller Cat is using is very similar to Doraemon’s own time machine. Future Cat also resembles Sewashi Nobi from the same anime.
• All of the Galaxy Gals, save for Headmistress Jeanne, reference something.
  • Thundia and Windy reference Raijin and Fujin respectively. To add to the reference, Thundia has a circular contraption behind her, which is supposed to symbolize Raijin's Thunder Drums, and Windy’s vacuum cleaner is supposed to be Fujin’s wind bag.
  • Kuu, Kai and Coppermine all reference characters from Journey to the West. Specifically, they reference Sun Wukong (She wields a pillar that can change size, rides on top of a mechanical cloud and has a circlet on her head), Zhu Wuneng (Rides a mechanical pig and that’s it) and Sha Wujing (The U.F.O-like object on her head is supposed to be like the plate on top of a Kappa’s head) respectively. There was also a now-deleted combo featuring the three of them named Journey to the West.
  • Kalisa’s design is quite similar to Hatsune Miku’s.
  • The Japanese characters on the Twinstars' mechanical claws represent the "aum" sound from Buddhism.
  • Myrcia's design resembles Claire Harvey's.
• According to Beefcake Cat’s description, when paired with legs that can float like a butterfly, it really stings like a bee!
• Evil Cat’s Japanese name is “Wagahai wa onidearu”, which references I Am a Cat.
• The Doll Cats’ True Form is a blatant reference to Aladdin.
• The True Form of Curling Cat, Green Shell Cat, looks identical to a Green Shell/Koopa Shell. Its description even references the Homing Projectile properties of the Red Shell (although the shell itself is green.)
• Legend Quest’s title design looks similar to Dragon Quest’s.
• The Meow Medal for completing all the stages in the Ghostly Houseguests event is named Who You Gonna Call?.
• The base designs of certain Cats of the Cosmos stages usually have some references in them.
  • The base design of Skelling is a person wearing a Darth Varder-esque helmet. To take the reference further, the treasure for this stage is named The Force.
  • Altair's base design has an eagle wearing a white hood which, combined with the name of the stage, references Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad from Assassin's Creed.
  • Kaiou's base design has a few pinkish colored balls with a different number and arrangement of stars on each of them.
• Zollow's attack animation is very reminiscent of the way a Dry Bones from Super Mario Bros. falls apart. To really emphasize this, they first appear in the stage "Sodden Bones", with sodden and dry being antonyms.
• Chronos’ Japanese name is Chronos Trigger.
• Catorpedo, the evolved form of Meowla Meowla, looks suspiciously like a Bullet Bill.
• The new characters in the Aku World chapter reference the Dragon Quest series. Dark Priest Mamon resembles Hargon (and also takes some design cues from the Dragonlord), while Jagando bears a slight resemblance to Malroth from the same game and shares a similar role.
• Most of the Behemoth enemies resemble monsters from Monster Hunter. Wild Doge looks like a Canyne, Casaurian Ahirujo resembles Yian Kut-Ku, Pterowl Hazuku looks like Nightcloak Malfestio and attacks in a similar way to Rathalos, and Crustaceous Scissorex has the same giant claw as Stonefist Hermitaur.
• Elder Beast Naala bears a slight resemblance to Arceus.
• Formicidaean Ariant's description is a reference to The Grasshopper and the Ants, with a twist: it worked hard to gather food for the winter, but ended up dying after overeating.